A Tribute

I think maybe Osiris just died in my neighborhood. John lived off exit 17*, and he went to church at 1717* Bellevue Way. A Facebook page made to honor and encourage him - “Get well John” - had 1700* entries.

John died after a brutal 3 year battle with cancer, and he never once gave in. He taught high school science, and he was one of those teachers who invested all he had into his charges. He also played guitar for his church - again, in order to reach the youth. Last year, John had just completed another bout with chemo, feeling like total shit, so of course he was off to play guitar for the prison inmates at the Monroe Penitentiary. That’s just who John was.

Last Saturday was the memorial service, and the church parking lot was packed, every pew was filled. I doubt I will ever see anything like it again, as long as I live. John believed in Jesus. Or in more ancient iconography, he believed in the Son/Sun of Osiris - the falcon-headed Horus. He believed in his children. Curiously, there was a great sun dog “halo” visible around the sun on that day. And since his death, there have been eagles circling directly overhead.

* According to Greek historian Plutarch, the ancient Egyptian god Seth murdered his twin brother Osiris in the twenty-eighth year of the latter’s reign, on the seventeenth day of the third month. Twenty-eight divided by 17 approximates the square root of e. If the date- setting priests were aware of this constant and wanted to express the nature of the festival by its date, they could have found no better way than to so assimilate the god’s death with the root -- or cause -- of new growth.